Alex smiled. Reluctantly he pulled his hand away and stood up. “I’m glad you believe me. And now I’m going to make sure everybody else feels the same as we do about the mission.”

“Thanks, Alex,” Sky said sheepishly. Then she leaned in and whispered, “Was it your whale that got you so interested in the sea creatures?”

Alex froze. “Um . . . no,” he said. “I . . . um . . . I’ve got to . . .” He whirled around and pointed his thumbs at the group, indicating he had things to do. He flashed an apologetic smile and stepped away to address the others, leaving Sky looking confused.

“It was just a question,” she muttered. But he was already out of range.

“Okay, okay,” Alex said, waving his hands to get the team’s attention. “Quiet down. And let’s not forget that our goal here is saving Copper. We’ll help the creatures if we can, but only after we’ve got Copper safe and sound. Clear?”

“Absolutely clearrr,” Simber said.

The others nodded. “Of course!” “That’s what we’re here for.” Their voices rang out full of enthusiasm, which eased Alex’s mind. He looked at Sky, eyebrows raised.

She put her thumbs up and smiled. “Thank you.”

Alex breathed a sigh of relief that the crisis was averted. But he had some jumbled feelings churning inside him that he couldn’t seem to straighten out. In addition to his frustration over his inability to concentrate, and his embarrassment over his failures with Spike, Alex couldn’t help but feel a bit guilty—because he, too, was more than a little excited to rescue the sea creatures. Perhaps one of them would be so grateful to be free that it would become Alex’s special water creature. Fully devoted . . . one who would replace the spot in his heart left cold and empty by his terrible mistake with Spike Furious.

Watching and Waiting

Speckled by cries of “Thar she blows!” from Captain Ahab, mews in triplicate from Kitten, and the occasional rumblings from Florence or Simber, the conversations on board the pirate ship were mostly earnest and thoughtful as the day progressed into night. And conversations between Alex and Sky were virtually nonexistent as Alex strove to avoid all mention of Spike. Though the longer he kept the secret, the more he began wanting to confess everything to her so he could get it off his chest.

Sky wasn’t quite sure what to make of it. After the kiss on the beach, the last thing she expected was for Alex to grow more distant. She had thought the opposite would happen. But she had plenty else on her mind to focus on right now, like rescuing her mother. Everyone on board was trying to focus on the mission, Sky most of all. So she didn’t give Alex’s behavior much thought.

As they sailed past Warbler Island, the captain kept the ship far from shore at Alex’s command—they didn’t want Warbler to mistake them as coming to attack, and they kept the ship dark until they were well past the island. It was better not to let them know they had left Artimé vulnerable.

Fox, Kitten, Ahab, Simber, and Florence made up the statue brigade. Octavia and a handful of squirrelicorns represented the creatures, and Alex, Lani, Samheed, Carina, Sean, Henry, Sky, and Crow were the human factor. It was almost perfect. It would have been nice to have Meghan with them, but she was one of only a few who knew and could handle performing the dissipate spell, which would remove the thorn necklaces from the Warbler children. Alex knew from experience that it was such a painstaking spell, and so dangerous, that a person could only do a few of them a day without tempting great error. The tiniest shaking of a hand could cause irreparable damage—or make someone completely disappear, as had happened quite tragically to Gremily the squirrelicorn during the battle on Warbler.

Alex missed having Meg on this trip. While he and Meghan hadn’t spent a lot of time together lately because of all the things they were busy with, he still considered her one of his best friends. Alex walked to the stern of the ship and looked back toward home. The island of Quill was there, he knew, even though it was dark.

Above his head, Simber flapped his wings now and then, but mostly he soared with them outstretched, riding the breeze. The ship moved slowly during the dark hours so that they wouldn’t reach Pirate Island until daylight. Since Pirate Island could erupt or sink under the water without notice, Alex didn’t want to be too close, and he wanted to be able to see.

“When we get close, you’ll make surrre someone looks afterrr the kitten?”

Alex smiled in the dark. “Yes. Henry will take her.” They were silent for a bit, and then Alex asked, “Can the captain swim?”

“I don’t know. It won’t help to ask him, so I’ll keep an eye on him. I would imagine he’d sink like a rrrock.”

“Everybody else can swim,” Alex said. “I was careful about that when I was first choosing this group.”

“It may not matterrr, if we get sucked into the volcano,” Simber said dryly.

“That’s not going to happen,” Alex said. He hoped very much he was right. But there was no telling when the fiery island would suddenly decide to plunge underwater.

“Have you considerrred anchorrring the ship a distance away and taking a smaller crrrew on my back to save the woman?”

“I have,” Alex mused. “But you can’t possibly carry Florence, can you? We may need her.”

The cat growled. “No, you’rrre rrright. I could prrrobably hold herrr a shorrrt amount of time, but not morrre than a few seconds.”